Couple Welcomes New Year's Baby, 1st Born In 2024 At Geneva Hospital

GENEVA, IL — A little girl was the first baby to be born at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in 2024.

It's the second time Batavia parents Andrea Cladis-Hodge and Matthew Hodge rang in the new year in a hospital maternity wing. Their first daughter, Esther, was born on New Year's Eve in 2020.

Now, they're parents to a New Year's Day baby, too. Pearl Noelle Hodge arrived at 5:28 a.m. weighing 7 pounds and 5 ounces and measuring 19.5 inches.

In an email to Patch, Media Relations Manager Kim Waterman noted the mother's father, Dr. Peter Cladis, works as a physician at Delnor and has served the community for more than 40 years.

In fact, he was the on-call doctor the night Matthew was born, according to reports from the Daily Herald.

"After seeing lots of pictures of my dad holding babies as a child — every time I'd go to his office, they had a little board of all the babies their practice delivered — I was like, 'those are my dad’s hands, and I feel like I'm missing something here,'" she told the Herald.

Andrea, also the mother of 19-month-old Sophia, later realized, "He delivered my husband."